


In Bed

by snowshus



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: 5+1 Things, Anal Sex, Biting, Bondage, Clothed Sex, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, Incest, Loyalty, M/M, Oral Sex, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25624582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/pseuds/snowshus
Summary: Five times Arthur sleeps in Kay's room and one time Kay sleeps in Arthur's
Relationships: Kay/Arthur Pendragon (Arthurian)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	In Bed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ba_lailah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ba_lailah/gifts).



> this is more of generic literary middle ages time frame than any thing that involved research.

The first time it happened, Arthur had been four. He’d gotten into the habit of following Kay around everywhere. He followed him around the castle’s forgotten halls. He followed him through the fields. He followed him to the river and into the forest. Kay walked faster, trying to lose the annoying brat. He just wanted to be alone, to go out and climb a tree or something, anything, without having to worry about Arthur wanting to do it too. He sometimes thought he hated Arthur. Little brother’s were the worst. Everyone was always doting on Arthur, talking about how sweet he was, how precocious-whatever that meant.

The faster he walked the harder Arthur worked to keep up, running behind him on his stubby little baby legs. Then there was a surprised yelp and Arthur’s golden curls disappeared. 

“Art? Arthur?” Kay turned back and started walking back the way he’d come. “Where are you, you little toad?” 

There was a quiet sniff to the left of him and Kay knelt down in the underbrush. There Arthur sat, knees and hands smeared with dirt and a little blood. He held his ankle carefully while tears spilled down his dirty cheeks. 

“What happened?” Kay asked, annoyed that once again Arthur had found a way to ruin everything.

Arthur shrugged. “It’s fine,” he sniffed.

Kay really, really wanted to say “Okay,” and be on his way, finally free. But, if he left Arthur would just get lost or sit here all night and then their father would be cross with Kay for leaving him. So instead he sighed.

“Come on, then, I was going home anyways.” He turned around and pulled Arthur onto his back. His little arms nearly strangled Kay, they were holding on so tight. When they got back to the castle Ector sent Arthur to be looked at by one of the serving girls and Kay did not see him again for the rest of the day. Which was fine. Kay had wanted to be alone anyways.

The moon was rising through Kay’s window when the wooden door creaked open and Arthur slipped in, limping slightly on his bandaged leg.

“I’m sorry I ruined your day out,” Arthur whispered, coming to the edge of the bed.

“It’s okay,” Kay said even though he was still sort of mad about it. 

Arthur nodded and pulled himself up onto Kay’s bed and hugged Kay very tightly. “Thank you for carrying me home.” 

“It’s fine.” Kay patted Arthur’s back awkwardly. “It’s my job. You’re my little brother, and father says it’s my duty to look out for you.”

“Can I stay here then?”

“What? Why?”

“My foot hurts and the bandages smell funny and the cabinet makes weird noises. I think it’s haunted. Can I stay with you, please?” Arthur clasped his hands together and looked up at Kay with big hopeful eyes. When Kay was four his mother was already dead and his father was often away as High King Uther seemed constantly in need of the service of his warlords. There had been no one’s bed for him to crawl into when the summer storms had thrashed against the castle walls with all their terrifying might. 

“Okay fine, you can stay.” Kay shifted over and Arthur immediately curled up in the warm space he left, one hand twisting in Kay’s shirt as he drifted to sleep. 

\--

It was strange to be lying in a bed in the royal castle. It was not where Kay had thought he’d end the day when he’d gotten up that morning, slightly sore from the too small bed at the inn. The bed he was in now was huge, roomy even for Kay who had grown up and out at an alarming rate until finally coming to his present size. He stood nearly a head taller than his father and almost two head over Arthur, though Arthur had lately begun to shoot up in awkward bursts. 

Jesus, Arthur. Kay didn’t know what to think about all of it: about Arthur being the king. It was impossible to imagine, the thought kept stuttering away in his mind. It was __Arthur__. Annoying, stupid, little Arthur, who could never do anything right. He wasn’t the high king, he was just Arthur.

But, at the same time it made an almost perfect amount of sense. The strange baby that had appeared in the middle of the night so many years ago would have some secret destiny. Kay hadn’t thought about it like that before. He had only been a child himself and he’d just thought that’s how babies always came. And when he was old enough to know better, he’d assumed Arthur was the product of some affair his father had taken up after the death of Kay’s mother. Without a marriage he could never be properly recognized as Ector’s child, but he could be adopted as a ward and that would be close enough. Arthur’s parents had always been a carefully guarded secret--a mystery no one was allowed to ask about. Kay had thought, stupidly it turned out, that Arthur really was his brother. They didn’t even look alike. Kay took after his father: dark rusty red hair and broad open features. Arthur’s yellow hair didn’t even have a trace of red in it and his features had always leaned towards sharpness--a pointed chin at the bottom of a long thin face. Kay was an idiot to think they could possibly be related.

“Kay?” He heard as the door creaked open. “Please let this be the right room, this stupid place is so big.”

“Art? What are you doing?” He asked as Arthur pulled himself up into the bed and lying across Kay’s chest with his bony elbows digging into Kay’s rib.

“Let’s get out of here.” 

“What are you talking about?” Kay tried to sit up pushing Arthur off his chest. Arthur rolled over and propped himself up on his elbows.

“Let’s get out of here, you and me. We can run away. Everyone is sleeping, they won’t notice until morning and we can be half way home by then.” 

“But you're the king.”

“I didn’t mean to be!” Arthur dropped back down muffling his voice in pillows. “It was a mistake, I just wanted to make sure you had a sword. And it was just there. I didn’t know it was a magic sword. I can’t be the king. I’m just...I’m nobody.”

“Well you should have thought of that before you forgot my sword,” Kay crossed his arms unsympathetically.

“I didn’t forget, you forgot. I was being nice, going back to get it for you,” Arthur looked up to glare at Kay.

“You were supposed to be my squire, it’s your job to make sure I don’t forget anything, like my sword. And you should have gotten __my sword__ instead of going and pulling magical swords out of rocks and getting yourself named king if you didn’t want the job.”

“Ugh, you're the worst!” Arthur shoved against his chest. Kay grabbed his hands and then pushed him back down onto the bed. They shoved each back and forth until they were laying red faced the wrong way across the huge fancy royal bed, Arthur pinned under Kay’s superior bulk. He goes boneless then, curling towards Kay’s chest the way he had when he was four.

“I don’t know what to do.” He whispered into Kay’s chest. “Everything is changing. And I just...I just want to go home. I want to go back to being just Arthur, of no particular importance. I don’t want to stop being your brother.”

“Don’t be stupid Art,” Kay slid his fingers through Arthur’s yellow hair attempting to be something close to comforting. “You’ll never stop being my brother and nothings going to change. I’m still older after all. It doesn’t matter what fancy title you get yourself, you’ll still have to listen to me and do what I say. Or else I’ll tell Father that you were the one who kept feeding the cats from the table and that’s why they never caught a single mouse.” 

“If you do, I’ll tell him about your mouse family and the real reason you never let the cat in your room.” Arthur shot back with the familiarity of mutually assured destruction.

“See,” Kay rubbed his hand across Arthur’s back. “Nothing’s changed, you’ll always be my annoying little brother.”

Arthur didn’t say anything and Kay’s lie settled between them. They both knew that starting tomorrow everything would be different.

\--

The battle was never going to be easy. They were out-manned and Arthur was still young. He was not a bad general. For his age and experience he was actually quite spectacular. He was still new at this though: new at leading men and new at planning strategy. That they won so decisively was astonishing and that fact alone did more to bring the reluctant Orkney and Cornish forces more securely into the fold of his court than all the previous attempts at diplomacy. 

It was an important battle for reasons that went beyond the territory and regency claims it was nominally about, which Arthur had explained to Kay like he was still trying to figure it out himself. Kay can’t say he really understood, but if the arrow piercing through the gap in Kay’s armor and sinking into his side was the price of securing Arthur’s throne then so be it. Arthur was his king and his brother. There was no one he’d rather die for.

Kay did not remember being pulled off the field or the removal of the arrow. He vaguely recalled Arthur next to him at some point, his yellow hair red with blood. He remembered wanting to know if he was okay, but he couldn’t focus enough to ask before darkness took him.

When he woke Arthur was beside him. He has cleaned up, the blood gone from his face. He’s clothes were clean and his armor gone. The fine robes he wore when conducting official business were draped carefully over a chair and Arthur sat on floor in his underclothes with a circle of papers around him. 

“What are you doing?” Kay asked, his voice scratched uncomfortably in his throat.

“You’re awake!” Arthur dropped whatever he was working on and clambered up to Kay’s bedside. 

“Ah,” Kay grimaced as a pain shot down his side when he tried to move.

“Shh, shh, you need to stay still and not move too much.” Arthur held him down. “The doctor had to sew your side up and if you move too much it’ll come apart and you’ll bleed everywhere and probably die. You might still and just don’t move, okay?”

“Okay, got it, no moving.” Kay leaned back down. “Tell me how the battle went?”

“We won, or we will have won once I draw up terms for surrender.” Arthur gestures at the floor.

“Ah, well that’s good.” 

Arthur bit his lip. “It isn’t though. We lost a lot of people, good people and I almost lost you. I might still. This was unnecessary. I should have been able to handle it another way. And these terms the lords have given me for accepting surrender...I can’t accept them. I won’t. I’m going to have to tell them that. I’m going to have to explain that we’re going to be showing mercy and Cornwall is not going to be happy about that.”

“You’ll make them happy with it.”

Arthur set his shoulders back and nodded. “I will.” Then he slumped down. “Why does it all have to be so hard.” 

Kay laughed and instantly regretted it and that caused him to cough and his whole side burned with all the movement.

Arthur was next to him in an instant. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Do you need some water?” Arthur asked.

“I don’t think I could sit up to drink.”

“I’ll help, we’ll go slow.” Arthur slipped his arm under Kay’s back and eased him up. He held a flask of water up to his lips. The water trickled out into Kay’s mouth and he swallowed carefully. Arthur brought the flask down after a moment and waited until Kay asked for more. Once the flask was empty Arthur dropped it to the floor, but he didn’t move from where he was sitting supporting Kay’s weight. He ran a hand through Kay’s dark hair until the exhaustion of the injury dragged Kay back to sleep.

\--

Kay was going through some inventory papers at his desk when Arthur burst in and threw himself down on the bed. 

“Shouldn’t you be in your wedding bed tonight?” Kay asked without looking up.

Arthur groaned and covered his face with a pillow.

“Going that well?”

“It’s the worst.”

“Come on it can’t be that bad.”

“I couldn’t even, you know -” he gestured at himself.

“Seriously? You don’t know how to fuck someone,” Kay asked, coming to stand over him.

“It’s not-it was just-it was so awkward and I don’t think she wanted to be there either and so then _I_ didn’t want to be there and then I couldn’t get hard and then it wouldn’t go in.” Arthur explained, his voice raising as he cataloged the chain of events that had driven him from the marriage chamber.

“God your pathetic.” Kay kicked at Arthur’s dangling leg. “Why didn’t you just masterbate until you were about to come and then get the tip in so you could say you did the deed and be set.”

“I didn’t think of that.” Arthur wrinkled his nose. “It doesn’t really sound fun.”

“Well, no, it’s not fun,” Kay flopped down so he was lying next to Arthur, “but it’s effective and at least it will be over fast.”

“Marriage is the worst.” 

“These are the trials of royalty, indeed.” Kay patted Arthur’s head.

“I just don’t know what to do,” Arthur complained.

“You’ve never?”

Arthur’s cheek flushed. “No. What, have you?”

“I was having sex before you were king.”

“Oh,” Arthur bit at his lip. “Could you show me?”

“Show you?” Kay looked over at Arthur.

“You know, like, teach me, demonstrate what I should do,” Arthur pressed on.

“And who should I be demonstrating on?”

“I mean there’s no one else here.”

Kay looked down at Arthur, his flushed cheeks and bitten lip. He watched the way Arthur’s eyes lingered on Kay’s lips before he forced himself to meet Kay’s stare. He’d become quite handsome over the years. Long gone was the chubbiness of childhood or the too long too skinny limbs of his teenage years. Arthur had more or less grown into those bony shoulders. And well he wasn’t nearly as broad or tall as Kay had turned out to be, he was well grown. His hair remained the same soft gold that so many children, including Kay, grew out of. It curled around his face and drifted in front of his clear blue eyes. He was certainly the sort of man that Kay would and had taken to bed on many occasions. 

Kay bent down “The first thing to know,” he says, letting his lips brush against the thin skin of Arthur’s neck as he talks, “is that penetration is only half the fun.” He punctuated his statement with a sharp bite into the skin of Arthur’s neck.

Arthur's fingers twisted in the loose fabric of Kay’s sleeves and Kay could feel Arthur’s throat moving against his teeth. 

“What--What’s the other half?” He gasped as Kay bit down harder for a moment before moving up.

“Preparation,” Kay answered before sinking his teeth into Arthur’s ear. He could feel Arthur’s cock getting hard against his thigh. Every time he moved his lips to bite down on a different part of his neck, Arthur made this quiet noise and tightened his fingers and got a little harder. He wondered if he could make Arthur come just like this. 

Maybe another time. 

He sat up enough to pull Arthur’s shirt up and over his head drawing his arms up with it. Kay left them tangled in the fabric and Arthur’s breath sped up slightly when he realized his hands were trapped but he didn't say anything or try to untangle them. He just left his arms where Kay had placed them. 

Kay ran a hand down the center of Arthur’s bare chest. He watched Arthur’s body react, the change in his breathing, the tightening of muscles in his arms and shoulders, the swelling of his cock against his loose pants. He brushed a thumb against one of Arthur’s nipples and Arthur made the sweetest little whine. 

“Kay,” he whimpered, as Kay did it again.

“Yes?”

“Please.”

“Please, what?” Kay asked, innocently. “What is it you want, My Lord?”

“I don’t know.” Arthur twisted his arms in desperation.

“I think you do.” Kay teased his other nipple. “If you don’t tell me, I can’t do it.”

“I want...I want...please I want you to have me, I want you inside me. Please.” He ended in a gasp as Kay pinched his nipple. 

“I thought so. That’s the first part of preparation, little brother, make them want it.” 

Arthur nodded like a school boy and arched up as Kay pulled his pants down, freeing his cock. Kay reached for a bottle of oil by his bed. “The second part is to make sure they’re very wet and very ready.” He explained sliding his oiled hand underneath Arthur to press a wet finger against his asshole. 

“Some people like it very slow and very careful,” He went on. “One finger at a time, little by little.” He pressed only the very tip of his finger in and out of Arthur’s body. Arthur whimpered and tried to push back, his arms twisting above his head.

“But some people prefer a little bit more force,” Kay said, thrusting two fingers in quickly. Arthur cried out as they entered him, his head thrown back. 

“Please,” he begged, wrapping his legs around Kay’s torso. Kay slid his fingers out a little and pushed them back in deeper. He fucked Arthur with his hand, pushing in faster and harder than he might for someone else. Arthur twisted below him, whimpering and gasping and begging so sweetly. 

“I thought you’d like it that way,” Kay leaned down and bit at a bruise on Arthur’s neck that he’d made earlier. Arthur turned his head away, opening up more of his neck for Kay to bite. 

“Kay, please, you promised.”

“I don’t recall making any promises tonight. Maybe this is all I want to do. Maybe I’ll just finish myself off and leave you hanging like this.”

“Kay, please, please I need it, I need you,” Arthur begged, opening his legs wider for Kay.

“I don’t know. I think I like the way you look just like this.”

Arthur tilted his chin down and pulled back his shoulder, “As your king, I demand you fuck me.”

Kay grabbed his hair pulling his head back, “as my king?”

“Yes,” Arthur groaned as Kay fucked his fingers as deep as they could get into him.

“Well, if my king demands it.” Kay loosened his grip on Arthur’s hair and let his fingers trail down the side of Arthur’s face as he reached for the oil again.

“Kay,” Arthur’s shoulders sank into the bed and his head dropped towards where Kay’s hand had been. All traces of the king once again gone from his body. 

Kay kissed him. He only meant for it to be a soft press, a reassurance for all the talk earlier that he’d take care of Arthur, as he always had. But Arthur leaned up and opened his lips against Kay’s and Kay was sinking into it before he could stop himself, his tongue slipping past Arthur’s teeth as Arthur opened up to him. 

Kay pushed his pants down quickly, just as far as he needed to get his cock out. Arthur whined against his lips as Kay positioned himself and pushed in, quick short thrust that left Arthur gasping against his lips with every push until he’s seated as deep as he can get. 

He pulled out slowly and then pushed back in with one hard thrust that made Arthur cry out. Arthur used his legs to pull Kay in closer, to urge him on faster and harder and Kay obeyed, fucking Arthur as fast and as hard as he wanted. Arthur panted his name between cries and twisted his arms in the shirt until he broke free. His arms wrap themselves around Kay’s shoulders in an instant, digging into the fabric of his shirt and dragging himself closer. 

“Art.” Kay wrapped his arm around Arthur’s back and slid the other hand between them. It barely took more than a touch to bring Arthur off. His body tightened around Kay as he came and Kay let Arthur’s moans pull him over until he was spilling himself inside his brother.

They lay together, breathing in the same air until Kay could bring himself to move and carefully pulled out of Arthur’s body. His pants had pretty much fallen to his ankles so he kicked them off and tossed away the shirt now ruined by Arthur’s come. He crawled back up the bed to lay next to Arthur who hadn't moved much except to rub at the come across his stomach with his own ruined shirt.

“So now you know what to do with a girl,” Kay brushed a bit of sweaty hair off of Arthur’s forehead.

“I don’t know, I think I might need more lessons,” Arthur turned towards him and Kay let him drap himself half on top, one leg nestled between Kay’s and his head resting in the crook of his shoulder.

“Whatever my king needs,” Kay replied, wrapping an arm around him.

\--

Arthur dropped down across Kay’s bed as was his custom. 

“You are getting far too old for this,” Kay complained, knocking Arthur off with his foot. Arthur slid gracelessly to the floor and leaned against the side of Kay’s bed.

“I think Lancelot loves Gwen.”

“Most of your knights do. She is a lovely woman, no one knows quite what’s wrong with you.”

“I do love her, she’s my dear friend, we just aren’t very fond of each other in one particularly way,” Arthur protested. “That’s besides the point anyways. I think Gwen loves him too.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I don’t know, I know she’s had other lovers but I don’t think she was in love with them. How do I tell her it’s okay if she is? You know, if she wants a relationship with him instead of just a fling.”

“I imagine by saying ‘Gwen it’s just fine with me if you start a long term thing with that lovely young knight there’ and then she will say ‘Oh Arthur, thank you for that I shall go have a tumble with him right now’ and you will come back here and we shall have tumble.” Kay sat up on the edge of the bed, his legs bracketing Arthur’s shoulders.

“Or we could have a tumble first?”

“Or we could do both.” 

“Yes, I like that plan best.” Arthur grinned, twisting so he’s kneeling between Kay’s spread legs. His fingers reached up to pull open Kay’s trousers. 

“It’s a shame you’re king, you look so much better on your knees then on the throne,” Kay said, running a hand through Arthur’s hair, pressing his cock against Arthur’s lips. Arthur opened his mouth and sunk down onto Kay’s cock. He sucked him with the expertise of what was now years of practice. And Kay twisted his hands in his hair just enough to make Arthur groan around him. Kay loved watching him on his knees. Arthur loved it too. That was probably the best part, the way Arthur gave himself up to Kay’s hands, utterly trusting. 

Tonight, maybe when whatever this was with the Queen gets sorted, Kay was going lay Arthur out on his bed, tie his hands to the board and take his sweet time making Arthur cry with how much he wanted Kay’s cock in him. For now though Kay just thrusted shallowly into Arthur’s mouth until he came, watching Arthur swallow around him. 

He pulled Arthur up into his lap, kissed the taste of himself out of Arthur's mouth as he rubbed his hand against the hard bulge of his cock. 

“Kay, I can’t-” Arthur protested.

“I know, I’ve got you.” Kay turned them over, holding Arthur’s hips down and pulling open his pants, setting a quick, hard pace with his mouth while Arthur twisted under his hands. He didn’t take long to come and the bitter taste flooded Kay’s mouth.

He sat up, wiping away the come that had slipped past his lips. “There, you’re perfectly presentable to go get you Queen laid.” 

“In a minute,” Arthur said, laying loose limbed across Kay’s bed.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Kay warned as Arthur’s eyelids drooped. 

“I’m not,” Arthur lied.

\--

Kay sat in the new nursery watching the tiny baby in the crib. He was so small, even the runty cat was bigger than him. He had a little tuft of blonde hair poking out of the blue blankets he’d been swaddled in. Kay could hear the adults in the other room talking in hushed voices. He might have been tempted to listen in at the door another time, but right now he was far more fascinated by the baby.

The baby opened his blue eyes and stared at Kay.

“Hello, my name is Kay,” He said. 

The baby blinked at him and sort of wriggled in the blue cloth it had been wrapped in. Kay nodded and picked the baby up, sitting on the floor with him. “I’m to be your big brother now. So you’ll have to do as I say and I’ll teach all about being a knight just like Father,” Kay told him. 

The baby yawned and closed his eyes then opened them again. 

“It’s okay to sleep here,” Kay told him. “I’ll protect you until you're old enough. Father said that’s what brothers do. And I’m going to be the best brother. I promise.”

They had found them like that a few hours later, Kay asleep against the wall and Arthur safely cradled in his lap. 


End file.
